You always do such great work on here, and with the DC site. I visit both every day. They always take me back to the true golden age of comics. At least in my humble opinion. Your sites are about the only ones where I will post. Simply because you have always done an excellent job of keeping the comment sections clean and straight.

I have always wondered how the comic industry would have been much different if Jim Shooter had remained at his position with Marvel for a few more years. From certain things that I have read online; he was never too crazy with the work of the Image founders. I have a hard time believing they would have made it into superstar status with him as editor-in-chief.

It does make for a very interesting "What If?" storyline. As much as comic book "historians" like to point to the "Death of Superman" as the biggest reason for the implosion of the comic book market in the nineties; I have always thought it had more to do with the forming of Image. So many of the books were chronically late. The overall quality was very poor. They flooded the stores with books that were basically garbage. They had an overall mentality to just strip mine the market. They were in bed with Wizard magazine. I do not think most fans understood that Wizard did not have any journalistic integrity. They would promote Image books as "Hot Picks" that were just completely terrible. Some of them were not even a third finished when they were released. They would list the Image founders as the industries "Hottest Artists." Even though most of them had not even worked on their books in quite some time. It was pretty shameless promotion.

Jim Shooter, has always been a fascinating figure in the industry. It is truly amazing how much he accomplished at such an early age. The way that Marvel dominated the marketplace when he was in charge. The books were almost always on time. That was always a priority to him. The quality of the books was continuously high. Even the licensed books. Which up until that time were pretty much throw away titles. Marvel was pretty much a well oiled machine when he was in charge.

I have read quite a bit on his life and career. A lot of fans from our generation seem to really love the guy. Many people in the industry do seem to despise him. He helped a lot of people to make a lot of money. Creative people are generally of a different breed. They do not seem to like it when they are pushed. Even when the results are positive, and in the best interest of the company. Shooter, has always struck me as a hard-nosed, boy scout, with a heart of gold. I have read stories where he would go out of his way to help people that he knew was conspiring against him. His story kind of reminds me of Ned Stark from "A Game of Thrones." Honest, hard, and fair. He just did not know how to play politics, and that cost him in the end. It is truly a shame. I have read about so many people that have worked in the comics field, and I am not sure that anyone has ever understood the truly successful process of making great books like, Jim Shooter. I think that he could do a lot in the industry right now if he was given the chance.

There was recently posted on Joe Jusko's Facebook page an awesome commission of the Marvel Universe done by Big John Buscema. I know how much you enjoy posting original artwork on here. I thought that it would be something that you would really enjoy. Do you have any future plans to do a piece on the Super Powers toy line for the DC site?

Funny - I'll take Al Milgrom over McFarlane any day. Todd McFarlane's hyperbolic style never impressed me. His run on Spider-Man along with all the fawning over him was a nauseating time for me as a Spidey fan. Venom is a ridiculous character.

As for the Super Powers toy line, unfortunately not for a while. I'm hammering away at the 2nd draft of a novel, Spirit Quest. That I hope to have done by the end of the year. So that's keeping me too busy for anything but image posts these days on either site.

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